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Video game analysts say Xbox "dropped the ball" on the wrong year, as the Call of Duty franchise appears to be underperforming compared to past years. While Call of Dutyhas dominated the first-person shooter genre for over two decades now, player counts and general reception to ****** Ops 7 have been significantly lower than the series is used to. Analysts theorize that it could be due to several factors, with a key one being that there have been many other exciting shooters released in 2025. View the full article

After two full decades and countless Total War entries, historical and otherwise, it is finally time to herald in the continuation of the series' best subfranchise. Ladies and gentlemen, Medieval 3: Total War, the next chapter in CA's longest-running TW, is officially on the way. Announced during today's 25th anniversary stream, Medieval 3: Total War is the next step both for the Medieval subfranchise and Total War as a whole. It's built on a new engine, one that will, hopefully, elevate the overall experience to a new level. [Hidden Content] Even CA says it's "unlike anything we’ve worked with before," and rich with tools that were "all designed to bring the medieval era to life in ways we’ve previously never been able to achieve." And it's not only about graphics. Warcore, the new engine, will allow for incredibly detailed stories to be told on and off the battlefield, opening up many paths for alternate historical scenarios to emerge, from preventing Columbus' trip to the Americas, safeguarding the future of the crumbling Kingdom of Jerusalem, preventing the disintegration of the Holy Roman Empire, and so on and so forth. It seems CA is gunning for realism, replayability, and depth, and though the franchise has never lacked in any of those, there certainly was a lot of room for improvement. And it's only natural that Medieval would be the vessel toward a new state of Total War. It was the first subfranchise and historical ******* for the series, while Medieval 2 stands for many as the best in the franchise, ever. There is no concrete release date yet, as the game is in "early pre-production," but it's at least an acknowledgement that it's real and making its way, if slowly, toward us. The post It’s here. It’s real. Medieval 3: Total War has officially been announced appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Another camo grind arrives in season one of ****** Ops 7, this time for Call of Duty: Warzone gamers who want to acquire some awesome animated Mastery camos for their new guns. BO7's season one update added over 30 new weapons for Warzone players to use and unlock, and each has a number of camos to equip to any number of them once the challenges are completed. These challenges range from simple (get eliminations with the gun) to complex (get headshots or certain other types of kills), but they can be accomplished in any of Warzone's free-to-play experiences. Here are all of the current camos and challenges to unlock them in Warzone for BO7 weapons. Table of contentsAll Warzone BO7 camosAll Warzone BO7 Military camosAll Warzone BO7 Mastery camosWarzone BO7 camos and challengesAssault rifle camo challengesSMG camo challengesShotgun camo challengesLMG camo challengesMarksman Rifle camo challengesSniper Rifle camo challengesPistol camo challengesLauncher camo challengesMelee camo challengesWeapon Prestige camosAll Warzone BO7 camos Image via Activision Warzone camos are separated into three categories: Military, Special, and Mastery. Here's an explanation on how they all work and how you can get them. All Warzone BO7 Military camos Image via Activision The first camos to unlock are the nine Military camos, which require getting a certain number of eliminations with each gun. They are all the same for specific weapon types, like these for assault rifles: Autumn: 5 eliminationsArctic: 10 eliminationsForest Digital: 15 eliminationsBalsam: 20 eliminationsArid: 30 eliminationsOil: 40 eliminationsSnowcap: 50 eliminationsHunter: 75 eliminationsSapphire Snake: 100 eliminationsAll Warzone BO7 Mastery camos Image via Activision The four main animated Mastery camos for Warzone in BO7 are Golden Damascus, Starglass, Absolute Zero, and Apocalypse. Once you unlock all of the Military and Special camos on a gun, you can complete these challenges to unlock the Mastery camos: Golden Damascus: Get 3 Kills in a single match 5 times.Starglass: Get 5 Kills without dying 5 times.Absolute Zero: Get 10 Eliminations while in the Top 10.Apocalypse: Unlock Absolute Zero on 30 total weapons.Warzone BO7 camos and challenges Image via Activision After Military camos and before Mastery camos, there are three Special camos and challenges for every gun and weapon in the game from BO7. Here's how to unlock them all once you've gotten all of the Military camos. Assault rifle camo challengesWeaponCamo ChallengesM15 Mod 0- Shimmer: Get 5 headshot kills - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations while using a suppressor - Trace: Get 5 eliminations shortly after sprintingAK-27- Shimmer: Get 5 headshot kills - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations while moving - Trace: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage MXR-17- Shimmer: Get 5 headshot kills. - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations while using a suppressor. -Trace: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage.X9 Maverick- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations while using a suppressor - Tyrant: Get 5 headshot kills - Trace: Get 5 eliminations without taking damageDS20 Mirage- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations while using a suppressor - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations while moving - Trace: Get 5 eliminations without taking damagePeacekeeper MK1- Shimmer: Get 5 headshot kills - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 5 eliminations shortly after sprintingMaddox RFB- Shimmer: Get 5 headshot kills - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 5 eliminations shortly after sprintingSMG camo challengesWeaponCamo ChallengesRyden 45K- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations shortly after sprinting - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while slidingRK-9- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations shortly after sprinting - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while slidingRazor 9mm- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations while using a suppressor - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while slidingDravec 45- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations shortly after sprinting - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while slidingCarbon 57- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations while using a suppressor - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while slidingMPC-25- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations shortly after sprinting - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while slidingKogot-7- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations shortly after sprinting - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while slidingShotgun camo challengesWeaponCamo ChallengesM10 Breacher- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations while aiming down sights - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while slidingEcho 12- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations while aiming down sights - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while slidingAkita- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations while sliding - Trace: Get 5 hipfire killsLMG camo challengesWeaponCamo ChallengesMK.78- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations while using a suppressor - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 5 headshot killsXM325- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 5 headshot killsMarksman Rifle camo challengesWeaponCamo ChallengesM8A1- Shimmer: Get 5 headshot kills - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while movingWarden 308- Shimmer: Get 5 eliminations while using a suppressor - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while movingM34 Novaline- Shimmer: Get 5 headshot kills - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while movingSniper Rifle camo challengesWeaponCamo ChallengesVS Recon- Shimmer: Get 5 headshot kills - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while movingShadow SK- Shimmer: Get 5 headshot kills - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 5 eliminations while using a suppressorXR-3 Ion- Shimmer: Get 5 headshot kills - Tyrant: Get 5 eliminations while moving - Trace: Get 5 eliminations without taking damagePistol camo challengesWeaponCamo ChallengesJäger 45- Shimmer: Get 3 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 3 eliminations while aiming down sights - Trace: Get 3 eliminations while using a suppressorVelox 5.7- Shimmer: Get 3 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 3 eliminations while aiming down sights - Trace: Get 3 eliminations while using a suppressor Coda 9- Shimmer: Get 3 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 3 eliminations while aiming down sights - Trace: Get 3 eliminations while using a suppressorLauncher camo challengesWeaponCamo ChallengesAAROW 109- Shimmer: Get 2 kills without taking damage - Tyrant: Get 5 kills or vehicle destructions - Trace: Get 2 kills while movingA.R.C. M1- Shimmer: Get 2 kills without taking damage - Tyrant: Get 5 kills or vehicle destructions - Trace: Get 2 kills while movingMelee camo challengesWeaponCamo ChallengesKnife- Shimmer: Get 2 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 2 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 2 eliminations shortly after sprintingFlatline MK. II- Shimmer: Get 2 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 2 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 2 eliminations shortly after sprintingBallistic Knife- Shimmer: Get 2 eliminations while moving - Tyrant: Get 2 eliminations without taking damage - Trace: Get 2 eliminations shortly after sprintingWeapon Prestige camos Additionally, each of the new Warzone weapons from BO7 has three unique Weapon Prestige camos apiece. These special camos are unlocked at Weapon Prestige 1, Weapon Prestige 2, and Max Prestige for each individual weapon in the game, so be prepared to grind if you want them all. For more info on individual Weapon Prestige camos, check out our guide for that here. The post Warzone camo challenges list – All weapon camos for new ****** Ops 7 guns appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

The Astra Malorum map is now live in ****** Ops 7 Zombies, and one of the earliest business will be to find the Pack-A-Punch. Just like all other maps, getting the Pack-A-Punch will be crucial for you to survive. It will allow you to upgrade your weapons, which is necessary for reaching and surviving the latter waves. The system in Astra Malorum is very different from how it worked in Ashes of the Damned, and this guide will give you a brief idea. How to get the Pack-A-Punch in ****** Ops 7 Zombies Astra Malorum Once you begin a fresh round, your first task is to reach the Planetarium. The big circular building is pretty impossible to miss, and the first set of quests will lead you to the location. Go inside the building to the circular area, and you'll find a big laser projection machine (right in the middle). Once you have obtained the first part, head to the second floor of Machina Astralis. You'll find a cultist's body at that location, and you'll also find the second part of the machine. Having the two parts is necessary to get the Pack-A-Punch in Astra Malorum. Image via X/MargwaNetwork Take both parts and put them in the Harmonic Oculus. You'll find the Oculus in the Observatory Dome. Here's the tricky part: the Oculus will take 40 seconds for the process to complete. During this phase, you'll have to shoot all the zombies to protect it. Once the process is complete, you'll be able to access the Pack-A-Punch on the Astra Malorum map. Incidentally, the Pack-A-Punch is part of the main easter egg. The early set of missions will guide you towards finding both parts, and also give away the location of the Harmonic Oculus. The Pack-A-Punch will allow you to upgrade your weapons, and you'll also find a fast travel location by the machine. The post How to find the Pack-A-Punch in ****** Ops 7 Zombies Astra Malorum appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

The Undertaker character class in the Elden Ring Nightreign DLC is a melee powerhouseView the full article

Players were hoping for more of Elden Ring's weapons to be addedView the full article

2025 has been an absolutely incredible year in gaming, with massive hits like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Battlefield 6, Hollow Knight: Silksong, ARC Raiders, and countless others. There's no question that it's a great time to be a video game enthusiast, and looking at the most-searched games of the year shows just how many great games released in 2025. View the full article

The Samsung 9100 Pro is a big, powerful, flagship SSD from one of the biggest names in the game. It brings high-end performance, pushing the limits of its PCIexpress 5.0 interface– on paper, this should be one of the best SSDs ever made, accelerating file transfers and game load times like never before. But Samsung wasn’t first to market with a top-tier PCIe 5.0 SSD, and there is stiff competition for the kind of cutting-edge performance that Samsung has historically been known for. Still, it is very fast on paper, with a strong endurance rating, five-year warranty, and the option of an attractive, low-profile heatsink for a few dollars extra. Purchasing Guide The 9100 Pro is available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities, priced at $170, $240, and $450, respectively on Amazon. Add another $20 on each of those price tags if you want the version with the heatsink (and you want the heatsink, unless your NVMe slots have their own heatsink). There’s more value per gigabyte at the top end, though 4TB is overkill for most boot drives and primary game libraries. [/url]Design and Software This is a standard M.2 2280 drive, so the dimensions and form-factor will be very familiar for anyone with an NVMe SSD. Samsung sent me the heatsink version of the 9100 Pro and it’s clearly built to a high-standard, with a sturdy, compact design and well machined heatsink fins that give it a quality look and feel. It’s available without the heatsink too, though, should your motherboard have big heatsinks for add-in drives, or you want to use a third-party alternative. It’s available in sizes from 1TB through 4TB at the time of writing (I’m testing the 2TB version), with plans to release an 8TB model down the line. Forget CrystalDiskInfo, if you have a Samsung SSD you get to use the excellent Samsung Magician Software which combines detailed drive monitoring with easy data migration, secure erase, drive encryption, and performance benchmarks, among other useful settings and tests. It’s not something everyone will feel the need to play around with, but if you want to keep a close eye on your new flagship SSD, Samsung’s Magician tracks drive health, system information, and has useful built-in tools like secure erase and drive encryption. Specs The specifications for the Samsung 9100 Pro are about as good as you can get with a modern, high-end PCIe 5 SSD. Although that’s never the full picture for any component, Samsung sets off on the right foot with this drive. The 9100 Pro uses Samsung’s 236-layer TLC NAND Flash, which is the company’s most effective memory to date. This NAND is also used in the older 990 Evo Plus and 990 Pro models, but with a newer controller and interface, this drive is much faster. The sustained read and write speeds of 14,700 MBps and 13,400 MBps, respectively, are competitive with other top PCIe 5 drives like Sandisk’s WD ****** SN8100 and Crucial’s T710. While you’re unlikely to encounter these speeds outside of benchmarks and large file transfers, if you want to move a lot of data around between drives (ideally between two PCIe 5 drives) then the 9100 Pro should do it exceptionally quickly. The random read and write performance is arguably more impressive, though, and highlights how far we’ve come in “smaller” capacity drives like this, showing how capable Samsung’s top flash designs are. The endurance rating of 1200 TBW for this 2TB model (up to 4800 TBW for the 8TB model) is plenty for the average user, though there are more durable professional drives out there if you expect to hammer yours on a daily basis for professional workloads. The Samsung 9100 Pro joins the high-end PCIe 5 market at a time of increasing competition. There are standouts like the Crucial T705 with its huge heatsink and impressive numbers leading the pack, but its high price of $260 reflects that. The WD SN8100 offers similar specs at a similar price, giving the 9100 Pro at $260 some real head to head action with little separating them. Ditch the heatsinks and their prices match up even closer. Then there’s the slightly slower, but still fast Corsair MP700 Pro and Elite, which are still blazingly fast in real-world workloads, but significantly cheaper. Considering the limited utility for the cutting-edge performance of a top PCIe 5 SSD in 2025, too, it’s also worth considering high-end PCIe 4 drives. Those include Samsung’s own 990 Pro, which is available at the same capacity for just $150. Performance To test the 9100 Pro I fitted it to my test system with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, an Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero, 32GB of RAM at 5,200MHz and a Radeon RX 7900 XTX. I installed the drive in the top-most PCIe 5 NVMe slot and tested on a brand new installation of Windows 11 running the latest 24H2 version, with the latest drivers and BIOS updates applied. In CrystalDiskMark, the 9100 Pro actually surpassed its rated sustained read and write performance showing how utterly fast this drive can be when shifting raw data around. That was backed up by my 10GB file transfer test. Moving it from a PCIe 4 WD SN850X 2TB model to the 9100 Pro (Write) took just 3.9 seconds, and moving it back again (Read) was even faster, at 3.4 seconds. If you frequently move large files or folders between drives and want one that will do it exceptionally quickly, the 9100 Pro is among the fastest there is. In real-world gaming benchmarks I saw equally impressive results. When running the Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail benchmark, we clocked a total loading time of just 6.2 seconds. All scenes loaded in under two seconds, and the first and fifth were well under a second a piece. That’s not much faster than a high-end PCIe 4 SSD, but it’s still plenty fast. The only place where I found any kind of anomalous performance was in 3D Mark Storage. There I recorded a respectable, if unimpressive, 3,269 points, with an average access time around 55 micro-seconds. Although I’m not the only one to have recorded a sub-4000 score with this particular drive on this particular benchmark, many contemporaries have managed 5-6,000+ scores. Iran it multiple times and it came back the same every time. I initially thought it might be the SLC running out, but I had similar performance throughout all the individual test runs during the benchmark. I’ve reached out to Samsung for comment and will update this review if and when I hear back. One area where this drive did really impress me, though, was temperature. Although the drive itself gets blisteringly hot to the point that touching it became a legitimate burn hazard, the controller inside was chilly the entire time. Even after sustained load during the 3D Mark test run, it didn’t even break 40 degrees. That said, this drive is clearly putting out a lot of heat so I’d recommend the heatsink or some kind of strong active cooling. View the full article

Our IGN First "cover story" game for December is High on Life 2, the upcoming comedy first-person shooter sequel to the 2022 original breakout hit from Squanch Games. We got our coverage warmed up with the funny in-universe ad for Humanzapro, and then we posted ten minutes of exclusive new gameplay from early in the campaign set in Pinkline Harbor, one of three in-game hubs you'll explore. And today, we've got a boss fight reveal, showing off a battle against Kreg Button, a pirate-themed bounty hunter. High on Life 2 aims to double down on what worked in the original, with new and returning talking guns voiced by the likes of JB Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm), among others. It also adds plenty of new gameplay, such as skateboarding. Check out the new boss fight gameplay below. Check out the original announcement trailer if you missed it, and stay tuned all December long for more exclusive High on Life 2 content, including more gameplay, new weapon reveals, interviews with the developers, a fresh hands-on preview of the latest build, and more! Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan. View the full article

Creative Assembly’s Total War 25th anniversary showcase featured a number of major announcements in the strategy series, including a brand new game, a significant update to an existing game, and the tease of a new game announcement at The Game Awards. Total War: Medieval 3 announced First up, Creative Assembly announced Total War: Medieval 3, the long-awaited return to the franchise’s historical roots, with a live-action reveal trailer. Here’s the official blurb: Now in early pre-production, this next chapter is both a tribute to its legendary predecessors and a bold revolution for the series. Built as the ultimate medieval strategy sandbox, it will empower players to shape realms, rewrite history, and immerse themselves in the Middle Ages like never before. Combining meticulous historical authenticity with unprecedented player agency, this is more than a sequel, it’s the rebirth of historical Total War. Total War: Warhammer 3 - Lords of the End Times announced Next came Total War: Warhammer 3 - Lords of the End Times, which coincides with the subseries’ 10th year. The Lords of The End Times Pack adds four new Legendary Lords into the Immortal Empires campaign experience in summer 2026. The first to be revealed is the great necromancer, Nagash, who returns to reclaim his lost power and drown the world in undeath. These new lords also herald the arrival of the free End Times Update. Here’s the official blurb: Taking inspiration from the lore, players will face a campaign experience transformed, with apocalyptic scenarios and cataclysmic events that push the boundaries of strategy and survival. And to crown this update, a new Legendary Lord will rise, ready to leave their mark on the cataclysm to come. Creative Assembly ended the announcement by saying there’s more to come from Total War: Warhammer, insisting “the series is far from over.” The Warcore game engine to bring Total War to consoles Next up was the announcement of the Warcore game engine, the latest version of Creative Assembly's own tech which allows for future Total War games to launch on console. Here’s what Creative Assembly had to say: Building on 25 years of strategy innovation, Warcore is the next evolution of Total War’s proprietary engine. As the most advanced technological foundation in the franchise’s history, it empowers developers with a suite of tools that allows for gameplay to be more immersive, dynamic and responsive than ever before. Designed to evolve over time, it will continue to unlock new capabilities, ensuring the franchise stays at the cutting edge of strategy gaming for years to come. In a franchise first, it also enables future games to be released on PlayStation and Xbox, welcoming a new generation of commanders to the scale, immersion, and tactical mastery that defines Total War. 'Surprise' Total War game set for The Game Awards The showcase ended with a tease for The Game Awards on December 11, when a “surprise” third game will be revealed. “This title will be Total War’s next major release and represents one of the most ambitious projects in the franchise’s history, marking the beginning of an exciting new era,” Creative Assembly said. “We hope to see you there.” Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

The Big Preview | Total War: Medieval 3 is in the works, the End Times are coming to Warhammer 3, and a new engine are all the stars of this showcaseView the full article

The Big Preview | In exclusive interviews with GamesRadar+, Creative Assembly leads talk Total War: Medieval 3, lessons learned from the Total War: Warhammer trilogy, and much moreView the full article

Producer Hirohito Suzuki talks rebuilding Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent to become Octopath Traveler 0, all while giving it a fresh feelingView the full article

Total War is soon dropping its PC-exclusive waysView the full article

I hate to tell ya Todd, but that at this rate, so will GTA 7View the full article

"We know the folks at Obsidian well, love their work, and so we reached out to them"View the full article

Publisher Snail Games USA has just confirmed that Bellwright, the open world survival RPG set in the medieval era, is getting a major update on December 9. Bellwright's upcoming update will feature a large new map, new story quests, new progression systems, and a suite of other new features and quality-of-life improvements. View the full article

Obsidian Entertainment releases a big feature update for its Early Access title, Grounded 2, while also laying the foundation for a big January content drop. Following in the same path as its predecessor, Grounded 2 launched in Early Access this past July to much fanfare from players. Even without an official launch date yet, Obsidian Entertainment continues to add to the survival action title with frequent updates. View the full article

Time to get the last of your homework doneView the full article

Lynae and Mornye show off new areas in Lahai-RoiView the full article

Esteemed designer Reiner Knizia has created over 700 published board games. If we reprint one of these board games a month, it will take us just over 58 years to reprint them all. By that time, fans will be clamoring for a new printing. We will never need to design another board game, ever again. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: For just $10, this PC board game bundle has some phenomenal cozy games - but you'll have to be quick This deliciously leftwing Christmas board game is all about unionizing against Santa Claus This urban fantasy TTRPG lets you live out every 80s high school movie, and it's less than $5 View the full article

Нашумевшая фэнтезийная пошаговая ролевая игра Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 от разработчиков из французской студии Sandfall Interactive оказалась хитом не только продаж, но и сервиса Game Pass.View the full article

I've built a solid 60% of my career on ribbing Todd Howard, but make no mistake, I quite like the guy. I think we have diametrically opposed tastes when it comes to "things we like in Bethesda games," but everything I've ever seen from him makes Howard seem generally pretty likeable and self-aware... Read more.View the full article

The Elder Scrolls 6 fans haven't been given a ton of information about the exciting and monumental RPG, and have more or less been staring at the same landscape image for the past seven years speculating about the game's future. Substantive updates about the project from Bethesda are very rare, but recently we got some important (albeit obvious) information about the game's release. View the full article

The Epic Games Store will be giving away at least one mystery game on December 11. The upcoming freebie will launch at a different time than the Epic Games Store's usual giveaways as it's meant to coincide with the 2025 edition of The Game Awards. View the full article